Eastern Washington puts focus on 4-4

Should Eastern Washington University, 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the Big Sky Conference, win its final four games and finish 7-4, would it be enough to land the Eagles an at-large berth in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs?

Beau Baldwin, Eastern’s first-year head coach, was asked that question during Wednesday’s Big Sky coaches’ conference call and promptly said he doesn’t know – or care.

“We’re trying not to even think about,” he said. “I don’t know the history of 7-4 teams making it. What I’m trying to stress to the kids – and I know you (media) guys sometimes don’t like to think this way, but we need to – is that I’m just thinking about 4-4.

“And that’s going to be a tough task, because Sacramento State is a tremendous team. They’ve played a lot of good football this year and they’re well coached. So getting to 4-4 is going to be a tough enough task for us.”

The Eagles entertain the Hornets (3-5, 1-4) in a 2:05 p.m. homecoming at Woodward Field on Saturday and, according to Baldwin, are approaching the game the same way they have their previous seven.

“Yeah,” Baldwin said when asked if he felt like his team was in a backs-to-the-wall situation. “But I’d feel that way no matter what our record is at this point. You have to feel that every game is important. That’s just the way college football is at every level, because every game means so much.

“You can’t rely on a tournament like you can it a lot of sports, where you can be in the middle of the pack and then play in a tournament and get into postseason play. (Football) doesn’t work that way, so every week, basically, has a playoff atmosphere to it.”

Coach picks Peach

Sacramento State coach Marshall Sperbeck was asked to evaluate the play of Eastern Washington’s senior defensive end Greg Peach, who leads the nation in sacks (2.0 per game) and tackles for losses (2.43 per game)

“He’s probably the premier defensive end in our conference,” Sperbeck said of the 6-foot-2, 250-pounder from Vancouver. “We’re going to have our work cut out for us (in dealing) with him. We just have to do a better job with our techniques and schemes and try to help out our tackles so we can take some pressure off those guys.”

Smiles abound in Ogden

Weber State coach Ron McBride has his Wildcats (7-2, 5-0) sitting atop the Big Sky standings and within a couple of wins of clinching the conference’s automatic berth in the FCS playoffs.

It’s a rather unusual situation for a program that hasn’t made it into postseason play since 1991, but it seems to be sitting well with the residents of Ogden, Utah.

“The nice thing about it is that the success has made the people in Ogden a lot happier,” said McBride, whose 13th-ranked Wildcats entertain Portland State (3-4, 2-2) on Saturday. “You go in the market, you go to get gas, you go places, and people are happy. Their expression changes when you walk into a restaurant, or something.”

Relief for Bobcats

Montana State’s 31-20 road win over Sacramento State last Saturday not only snapped a two-game skid, but apparently did wonders for the Bobcats’ collective psyche.

“It was absolutely huge for us,” MSU’s second-year coach Rob Ash said. “We had struggled the previous two weeks at home (losing to Weber State and Eastern Washington), and it was very disappointing. … We felt like the weight of the world has been lifted off our shoulders – at least for a week or two.”

Quick kicks

By virtue of its 41-20 victory over Northern Colorado last weekend, sixth-ranked Montana (7-1, 3-1) assured itself of its 23rd consecutive winning season. … Grizzlies coach Bobby Houck, whose career record at UM is 59-15, needs one more victory to become just the sixth coach in Big Sky history to amass 60 wins. … Idaho State’s 12-game losing streak is the second longest in the nation behind only Indiana State, which has lost 22 in a row. It is also within seven games of matching the Bengals’ longest losing streak of 19, set during the 1979 and 1980 seasons. … The Big Sky has four teams – Weber State (No. 3), Montana (No. 4), Northern Arizona (No. 16) and Eastern Washington (No. 26) – ranked in the top 30 of this week’s Jeff Sagarin Ratings of FCS schools.